Ribbon Flower Tutorial

Right now we have a Japanese student living with us for 2 weeks.  Her name is Ayaka.  She is a lot of fun.  She loved the flowers I made for the girls and wanted me to teach her how to make them.  I started with the ribbon flowers, and some time this week I will teach her how to make the fabric ones.  She caught on very quickly and before I knew it, she had made 13 flowers!  My favorite is the picture of her wearing them all at once!  :)

Let's get started!  For the large flowers I use 1 ½" Ribbon.  You need 5: 4 inch pieces.  I like to mark my ribbon in 4 inch increments and then cut it all at once.  Makes it a little easier!

Next you are going to fold your petals.  Make sure you have your needle and thread ready to go!  First you fold it like this...

And then you will fold over the top to form this...

And this it really hard to tell what I just did...here is a little video that might help a little!

It may take a little practice to get the folding down, when you make the first fold try to keep it in the center of the ribbon, you want your ends to match up.  

After you finish each petal you will want to sew it together, I just stitch across the bottom of the ribbons, and then push it off onto the thread.

Make sure you hold them all the same direction when you sew them so they all have the fronts facing the same way.  Here are my 5 petals all on the thread.  This is a view of the backs of the petals.

Tie the threads together, pulling tight, but be careful not to pull too tight or your string can break, and that is the most annoying this, especially since you will have to sew them together again.  Here's my finished flower.

Here is a view of what the back of the flower will look like.

Now you can stop here and attach it to a hair clip and add a cute little center, or you can make a smaller flower to add to the top.  I use 7/8" ribbon.  You will need 5 pieces again, this time cut to 2 ½ - 3", depending on what you like.  Fold and sew them together the same way you did with the larger flower.

It fits nicely on top of your other flower.

I use hot glue to put mine all together.  I do it the same way I do with the fabric flowers, only I use a felt circle on the bottom instead fabric.  If you need, you can read how I glued them together here!  

Another idea...late last year I went CrAzY making these for my girls!  To make them a little more versatile I made them interchangeable!  I used large snaps and glued them to the top of the large flower and bottom of the small flower.  Then I could easily pop off the smaller flower and change colors to match different outfits.  Hot glue held the snaps pretty well...just be a little careful when pulling them apart.

Oh, and don't forget to add a cute center to your flowers.  You can use anything...gems, glitter discs, brads.